Kinder und Jugendliche mit Verhaltensauffälligkeiten stellen besondere Anforderungen an Sonderpädagogen in Schulen mit dem Förderschwerpunkt ‚Geistige Entwicklung’ und lassen Fragen sonderpädagogischer Professionalität und Professionalisierung bedeutsam werden. Die vorliegende qualitative empirische Untersuchung knüpft an ein strukturorientiertes Verständnis pädagogischer Professionalität in Anlehnung an systemtheoretische, strukturtheoretische sowie interaktionistisch orientierte Ansätze an. Das Erkenntnisinteresse ist darauf gerichtet, welchen besonderen professionellen Anforderungsstrukturen sich Sonderpädagogen im Umgang mit Schülern mit Verhaltensauffälligkeiten an Schulen mit dem Förderschwerpunkt ‚Geistige Entwicklung’ gegenübersehen, wie sie Verhaltensauffälligkeiten deuten und in welche professionellen Orientierungsrahmen diese Deutungsmuster eingelassen sind. Die Auswertungsergebnisse verweisen auf die komplexe Struktur sonderpädagogischer Professionalität, die sich zwischen der spezifischen Anforderungsstruktur pädagogischen Handelns, dem professionellen Orientierungsrahmen sowie den Falldeutungsmustern konstituiert. Vor dem Hintergrund dieses Wechselwirkungsverhältnisses eröffnen und verschließen sich bestimmte pädagogische Handlungsmöglichkeiten im Umgang mit Schülern mit Verhaltensauffälligkeiten. Auf der Grundlage der Ergebnisse werden Perspektiven für weiterführende Forschungsprojekte sowie die Gestaltung von Professionalisierungsangeboten in der Aus-, Fort- und Weiterbildung entworfen. / Children and young people with challenging behaviours make special demands on professional pedagogical practice at special-needs schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities and give importance to professionalism and professionalization. The qualitative empirical study ties in with a structure-oriented approach of pedagogic professionalism, based on system-theoretical, structural and interactionistic-oriented approaches. The study asks for challenges in interacting with pupils with challenging behaviours, how the special education teachers interpret challenging behaviours and in which professional framework for guidance these patterns of interpretation are set. The findings refer to the complex structure of special educational professionalism, which is constituted between specific demands on pedagogical practice, professional framework for guidance and patterns of interpretation. Against this background specific opportunities and limitations for educational practice with pupils with challenging behaviours are reconstructed. Based on the results perspectives for further research projects are conceptualized and conclusions on education, training and support in educational settings are drawn.

Årsakene til at mennesker med psykisk utviklingshemming utvikler utfordrende atferd er mange og sammensatte. Biologiske, psykologiske og miljømessige faktorer bidrar hver for seg eller sammen til at atferden oppstår. Uri Bronfenbrenners økologiske modell for sosial utvikling beskriver faktorer som kan påvirker atferd. Det handler om nære relasjoner og om omkringliggende systemers innvirkning på relasjonene. Studiens hensikt har vært å beskrive kommunalt ansatte omsorgsgiveres erfaringer med økologiske faktorers betydning for å kunne mestre og forebygge for utfordrende atferd hos mennesker med psykisk utviklingshemming. Åtte omsorgsgivere fra seks ulike omsorgsmiljøer har blitt intervjuet om sine erfaringer. Studien er gjennomført etter kvalitativ forskningsmetode. Materialet har blitt samlet inn og analysert etter hermeneutisk tilnærming. Omsorgsyternes erfaringer med økologiske faktorers betydning i omsorgsarbeidet er tydeliggjort i fem beskrivningskategorier: Tøff hverdag, Ulik tilnærming - nesten samme praksis, Ulike miljøer, Trygt arbeidsmiljø og Lukkede miljøer. Studien viser at økologiske faktorer påvirker forekomst av utfordrende atferd hos mennesker med psykisk utviklingshemming. Bevisstheten om de enkelte faktorenes betydning kan bidra til å utvikle forebyggende tiltak i omsorgsmiljøene. / The causes behind the development of challenging behaviour in people with learning disability are numerous and complex. This type of behaviour is prompted by a combination of biological, psychological and environmental variables. The ecological model proposed by Uri Bronfenbrenner for social development describes variables that can influence behaviour, mainly the close relations between people and how surrounding systems influence those relations. The purpose of this study is to describe how caretakers, employed by various municipalities, have used ecological factors and drawn experience from them in handling and preventing challenging behaviour in people with learning disability. Eight caretakers from six different environments have been interviewed on their practical experience. The study has been carried out with qualitative research techniques. The material has been collected and analyzed according to a hermeneutical approach. The caretakers` experience of the importance of ecological factors in the caregiving tasks is demonstrated in five description categories: Difficult daily tasks, Different approach- almost same practice, Different environments, Safe working environment and Closed environments. The study demonstrates that ecological factors influence the incidence of challenging behaviour in people with learning disability. Being conscious of the importance of the various factors may promote the development of preventive measures in the caretaking environments.

Background: Psychiatric inpatient staff members work with arguably the most challenging service users. However, reference to these challenges often does not go beyond ‘challenging behaviour’, offering no insight into the actual presentation, thus preventing formulation of the perceived challenges, or subsequent interventions. Moreover, studies have shown that staff responses to challenging presentations can impact on both the staff member and the service user. In particular, staff causal attributions have been shown to impact on their therapeutic response (Apel & Bar-Tal, 1996), as well as being associated with staff emotions (Colson et al., 1987). In turn, the emotional response has been found to be associated with coping, both of which have also been found to effect staff behavioural response, as well as staff members’ psychological well-being (Wykes & Whittington, 1998). However, there have been limited studies assessing these relationships with psychiatric inpatient staff. This may be due to the lack of assessment tools developed for this staff group to measure these particular domains. A specifically designed tool would enable consistent assessment to take place to build on our theoretical knowledge of psychiatric inpatient staff members’ perceived challenges, and their responses to them, as well as highlight specific areas within these domains where further staff training and support is required. Aims: The first aim of the study was to explore psychiatric staff’s views on the challenges they faced when working with service users in inpatient settings, their emotional responses, attributions, and coping strategies about those challenges and then to develop a measure which would accurately capture these (the SEACCS). The second aim was to assess the reliability of the new scale as well as explore relationships within the SEACCS. Finally, the third aim was to assess content and face validity, as well as conduct preliminary psychometric investigations of the construct validity of the newly developed measure. Method: The study was conducted using various methods across three phases. In order to generate items for the SEACCS, a systematic review of the relevant literature and semi-structured interviews took place during the first phase. Secondly, the results of Phase I were combined in order to develop and construct the SEACCS. The third phase involved a postal survey of the SEACCS (including re-test), followed by psychometric investigations to scrutinise the items, explore the reliability, and construct validity of the SEACCS.Results: Twenty three studies were included in the systematic review. The results highlighted inconsistent measurement and findings of the domains concerned. Seven multi-disciplinary staff interviews took place. Thematic analysis was used to conduct four separate analyses focusing on each of the research questions. Several themes and sub-themes were found. Themes such as: ‘Engagement’, ‘Attributions of controllability’, and ‘Behavioural responses’. Findings from the review, thematic analyses, and consultation groups (content and face validity) were combined in order to develop the 64 item SEACCS. A total of 76 multi-disciplinary psychiatric inpatient staff members completed the SEACCS, 15 of which completed re-tests. No items were removed following item scrutiny assessments. Preliminary psychometric investigations indicated good reliability, significant relationships across domains within the SEACCS, and partial construct validity with the GHQ-28.Conclusion: The results of the current study provide the first step in the development and construction of a clinically relevant tool that can be used to assess these domains. The methodological limitations and clinical implications are considered, and future directions for research in this area are suggested.

This diploma thesis deals with respite service and issues with providing respite services to parents of children and adults with autism and mental retardation. The opening chapters focus on autistic spectrum disorder in combination with mental retardation and potential challenging behaviour. This work describes therapeutic process for persons with autism and mental retardation and it also describes the issues with providing social service to these persons. This thesis focuses mainly on respite services. The empirical part describes the availability of respite services for families with autistic person and mental retardation in the Czech Republic.

Tidigare forskning visar att stödpersonal till brukare som har ett utmanande beteende har en komplex och ibland svår arbetssituation och yrkesroll. Stödpersonalen upplever känslor som rädsla, maktlöshet, sorgsenhet, ilska och tidlöshet i mötet med en brukare som har ett utmanande beteende. Utmanande beteende hos brukare har identifierats som en anledning till att stödpersonal blir utbränd. Stödpersonal kan tillskriva brukarna intentionen att de vill skada andra eller sig själv och att det är möjligt att kontrollera detta beteende. Utbildningsnivån hos stödpersonalen påverkar attityden till brukare som har ett utmanande beteende. Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en förståelse för hur stödpersonal upplever och ser på individer med ett utmanande beteende samt upplever sin arbetssituation. Med fokus på stödpersonalens känslor och yrkesroll. För att besvara syfte och frågeställningar har kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerad intervju används. Empirin har analyserats med tematiskanalys metod. Hochschilds teorier om emotionellt arbete, känsloregler och socialt utbyte har använts för att skapa förståelse. Resultatet tyder på att det troligtvis är svårt att uppnå ett djupagerande emotionellt arbete i de situationer där brukare har ett utmanande beteende och att en emotiv dissonans uppstår. Det fanns känsloregler på arbetsplatserna skapad av utbildning, kurser, diskussioner och handlingsplaner. Informanterna hade en god människosyn likt en humanistisk människosyn. Outbildad personal har ofta ett annat tankesätt. Denna kunskap, eller brist på kunskap, kan tänkas påverka stödpersonalens syn på och attityd till brukaren. Arbetssituationen beskrevs som jobbig, påfrestande, utmanande men även bra, kul, omväxlande och positiv. En del informanter ansåg att stödet de fick från chefer inte var tillräckligt. Det kan tänkas att det är lättare för chefer att ge stödpersonalen stöd i form av utbildningar, handlingsplaner, teammöten och uppföljningar än att ge stöd i emotionshantering. Ett bra stöd innehåller även ett stöd i emotionshantering, då det är en stor del av arbetet med brukare som har ett utmanande beteende. / Previous research shows that care staff for individuals who have challenging behavior have a complex and sometimes difficult work situation and professional role. Care staff experience feelings like fear, powerlessness, sadness, anger and timelessness in the encounter with an individual who has a challenging behavior. Challenging behavior by clients has been identified as a reason why the care staff burns out. Care staff can assign clients the intention that they want to hurt others or themselves and that it is possible to control this behavior. The education level of care staff affects the attitude towards clients who have a challenging behavior. The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how care staff experience and see individuals with a challenging behavior and experience their work situation. Focusing on the care staff's emotions and professional role. To answer purpose and questions, qualitative method with semi structured interview has been used. Hochschild's theories about emotional labor, feeling rules and emotions as social exchanges have been used to create understanding. Empire has been analyzed with the thematic analysis method. The result suggests that it is probably difficult to achieve a deep acting emotional labor in those situations where clients have challenging behavior and that an emotive dissonance occurs. There are feeling rules in the workplace created by education, courses, discussions and action plans. The informants have a good view of human beings, similar to a humanistic view of humanity. Uneducated staff often have a different mindset. This knowledge, or lack of knowledge, may affect the support staff's views and attitude towards the client. The work situation is described as difficult, stressful, challenging but also good, fun, varied and positive. Some informants felt that the support they received from managers wasn’t enough. It might be that its easier for the managers to support care staff in the form of education, action plans, theme meetings and follow-up than support them in emotion management. A good support also includes support in emotion management, as it is a major part of the work with users who have a challenging behavior.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur personal på boende enligt LSS upplever sitt handlingsutrymme i förhållande till utmanande beteende. Samt att undersöka vad det är som styr personalens handlande vid olika situationer. Studien belyser stödpersonal på LSS-boendes komplexa yrkesroll. Fokus ligger på motstridande styrande värden som påverkar personalens handlingsmöjligheter. De värden som ligger till grund för denna uppsats är organisationens riktlinjer, individens självbestämmande, samhällets normer samt personalgruppens- och den enskilde arbetarens värderingar. I undersökningen framkommer det att stödpersonalens intention med arbetet är att främja individens levnadsvillkor samt att vara en god arbetare och samhällsmedborgare. Att leva upp till de olika aktörernas krav samtidigt visar sig vara svårt då dessa ofta strider mot varandra. Personalen vilja att vara god i allas ögon leder istället till en känsla av misslyckande och att inte räcka till. Undersökningen grundas på personalens upplevda handlingsutrymme och tar avstamp i etiska och moraliska överväganden. Som stödpersonal gäller det att ständigt reflektera över sitt handlande för att utvecklas i sin yrkesroll. För vems skull handlar personalen? Och vilka konsekvenser kan handlingarna leda till? Dessa frågor dyker upp under studiens gång, uppsatsen lyfter personalens reflektioner över sitt handlingsutrymme och en diskussion kring vad som faktiskt ligger till grund för handlingen. Personalen upplever otydliga riktlinjer och bristandekompetensutveckling. Samtidigt framkommer det att en del riktlinjer, lagar och normer står emot varandra vilket försvårar personalens val av handling. / The aim of this study is to investigate how staff at specially adapted housing by LSSexperiences their room of manoeuvring at challenging behaviour, and to examine theprovocation of the choice of act in specific situations. The study proves the complexity of the profession, and difficulties in work with people with special needs. The focus is on different directorial values in conflict to each other, which affect the personnel scope of actions. The central operators and values of this study are, the guidelines of the organization, the autonomy of the individual, the norms of the society, the valuations of the staff group together with your own appraisal. The study reveals that the staff’s intention at work was to support the patient’s quality of life and at the same time be a good worker, colleague and citizen. The study proves that it is hard for the staff to live up to all requirements because of their discrepancies. The staffs express a wish to be seen as good by all of the involved operators at the same time, which leads to a feeling of failure and insufficient. The survey is based on staff experience of their discretion at challenging behaviour and is formed by ethical and moral considerations. It is important for the staff to constantly reflect over their choice of action to develop in their profession. Questions like “what is the reason of the action?”, “what consequences can the action cause?” “and for who’s sake?” is discussed in the survey. The study shows the staffs images of their scope of actions and reflections about the actually basis for the action. The staffs express unclear guidelines from the organization and lack of education. And it appears that some policies, regulations and standards conflicts with each other, which complicates the staff’s choice of action.

The aim with this study was to examine how care staff in 9 § 9 p LSS residence with special services experienced and worked with challenging behaviour based on a low arousal approach. The study was conducted by qualitative research through semi-structured interviews in a bigger municipality in southern Sweden. A total of seven care staff were interviewed. The results showed that the informants agreed that challenging behaviour is considered threat and violence in various forms, both physically and mentally. It is important to have knowledge of challenging behaviour in order to prevent potentially dangerous situations that could lead to harm for those involved. In nine out of ten cases, it is the staff’s fault that a behaviour occurs. This may be due to communications difficulties or the working group not working uniformly with the user. The informants agree that a low arousal approach is a good method for working with challenging behaviours. The informants work with it by following routines, evaluating events, adapting requirements to individuals and working uniformly. Most of the informants have worked with both low arousal approach and physical restraint measures, whereby they agree that the user responds better to the first-mentioned method. By the staff acting calmly, the user will be calm.

This qualitative, phenomenological case study investigated the influence of character education, taught in addition to the Life Skills curriculum, on challenging behaviour in a primary school in Gauteng. Through a filtering process the researcher identified the Youth Citizens’ Action Programme (YCAP) as a suitable additional programme, one which currently includes democratic citizenship and service learning approaches. These are attuned to the study’s theoretical framework, which vests in social and experiential learning, modelling and observation. Although the YCAP at this particular Gauteng school is each year implemented by a team of Grade 7 learners, the implementation of the YCAP involved all the learners across grades. Hence, the empirical study focused on the contribution of the Grade 7 learners to addressing bullying, which learners themselves identified as the most prevalent form of challenging behaviour. The findings showed that the YCAP decreased bullying as challenging behaviour in this particular school. / Inclusive Education / M. Ed. (Inclusive Education)